When an entrepreneur decides it’s time to sell her company, it’s hard to know where to begin. With so many legal and financial steps to follow, it can be an overwhelming task to manage and follow through.

When going through the 2013 acquisition of my company, Sonicbids, I learned some important do's and don’ts that matter when going through the acquisition process.

After 13 years of running my own company and being active on several boards, as both an advisor and board member, I have learned a lot about the importance of surrounding yourself with the right set of advisors. Selecting your board is a critical activity that will shape the course of your business. You want to have similar beliefs and values, a common goal and vision but enough differences to balance each other out.

I spent a good part of my early entrepreneurial life running away from the fact that I had a music degree and not a business degree. Looking back, I convinced myself that a creative background somehow put me at a disadvantage, believing that not having a traditional business degree made me appear to be a weaker business person, a tamer negotiator, and a lesser strategist.

Simplicity wins. If you’ve ever played Tetris, you know that it’s one of the simplest games ever created. Anyone can play it, the rules are easy for even a 3- or 4-year-old to pick up. How many other video games can you name that have been around for over a generation and have Tetris’ enduring success?

I get asked all the time about tips for starting a business. Truth is, there are no shortcuts. Launching and operating a new business is all about putting in the time, taking one step further each day than the day before, and above all, being open to learning from all everything around you, including your customers.

I became a successful startup founder before I became a father, but in many ways, I wish it was the other way around. My wife and I recently welcomed our newborn twin daughters, Lydia and Zoë, and I admit that, just like there’s no substitute to learning the entrepreneurial ropes than by just diving in, the same can be said about fatherhood. (Though, having done both, I will attest that newborns are much tougher than startup VCs.)

Entrepreneurs fret over just about everything: marketing plans, product features, investor pitches, sales collateral, management team hires, company valuations, financial projections, cash balances. But an often neglected, yet critical part of success is the culture that a startup founder fosters and the key role that it plays in the company’s eventual success.

Starting a business is like joining the priesthood: it’s not something you do 9 to 5 on weekdays and then leave behind when Friday evening rolls around. Being an entrepreneur is a full-time occupation. Make that, preoccupation. You eat, sleep and breathe your obsession 24/7/365.